212 THE LION KILLER. 



of carnivorous wild beasts, excepting, however, the lion. I 

 contented myself with some hyenas and vultures which some 

 of my friends had requested me to procure for them, and the 

 rest were suffered to go free. 



After the first night of my entry into the blind I had 

 heard nothing of the lion. From time to time I questioned 

 the spahis about him, and they went on to tell of the losses 

 they were constantly sustaining on his account. I could not 

 understand the reason of my failure, and commenced to get 

 weary of my task and despair of success, when one even- 

 ing as I was going up to my post on the path I had so often 

 followed, I saw with joy the immense tracks of my game in 

 the sandy path. 



I had never seen his track before, but there was no mistak- 

 ing it, the lion had walked that morning where I was now 

 standing. 



But how was it that he could come here and I had not 

 seen his footprints this morning ? It must be that after I had 

 descended the mountain he- had ascended it by the same 

 road, and so I avoided meeting him on the path that he had 

 trodden an hour afterwards. I remembered that the evening 

 before,I had been informed that the squadron was to ride out 

 for parade, and that to avoid punishment I had quitted my 

 post with the early dawn to return to camp, but still it was 

 light enough to have seen the tracks if they had existed then. 

 By following my usual course I reached my blind without 

 losirjg the trail from sight a moment. 



As I had been in such haste in the morning I had not 

 covered the carcase with branches as I usually did, neverthe- 



